Rhoda’s relationship towards the male characters in the story is barely existent. Rhoda avoids conversation with most males. This may have something to do with past experiences; perhaps she had been hurt from previous relationships and now avoids any contact with the opposite sex. She possesses a great amount of hatred towards Farmer Lodge this may be, for not accepting or acknowledging her sibling on the account of their failed relationship. The only positive relationship Rhoda has with a male character in the story is her son, Jamie.
The first impressions of Rhoda are noticeably different to the ones found whilst looking into her character more intensely. My personal first impressions of her were of a woman driven by jealously and the need to be in control of every situation. However, looking further into her disposition she simply has an insecure view of situations. To outside people she may come across as a strong character, though deep down, she is more emotional than the male characters in the story. Rhoda rarely involves herself with any conversation, however she is respectful towards other people, though on occasions she does misinterpret situations, which may be looked upon as disrespectful. This can be interpreted from the pages 9 to 10, where upon Gertrude appears at Rhoda’s house from some boots from her son. By the way Rhoda acts towards Gertrude implies to the reader that she is jealous and embarrassed, as she cannot provide for her own offspring. Another reason why Rhoda may have come across as disrespectful to Gertrude is because of her own fear of her son rejecting her.
Within the small community in which Rhoda lives, other women view Rhoda as an outcast. From the beginning of the story in the cow dairy Thomas Hardy makes it clear to the reader that Rhoda is not very involved with local gossip and that perhaps she lacks communication with other people. An example of this is at the start in the dairy, when there is much conversation going on about Farmer Lodge, Rhoda does not get involved. This is reiterated when members of the cow dairy begin to talk about Rhoda behind her back. Rhoda makes no effort to confront these comments and presumably carries on with her work. Rhoda barely goes into her local parish and market, and usually sends her son to do any odd jobs for her. She says to him on page 2, ‘I shall send you for a few things to market…’ Rhoda and her son, also live considerably far away from the market, this was taken from, ‘…your house is the nearest outside our own parish.’ This may imply that Rhoda and her son live in the middle of two different parishes, or perhaps she does not live within a parish, both these suggestions cause difficulties for Rhoda if ever she wanted to be more involved with community events. Rhoda’s quirky character varies a lot, from other females that live within the network where she lives and works. However I feel there is a strong connection between Rhoda and Gertrude, in that they are both strong outcasts in the community. Event though much they may dispute it, their characters are very alike.
In the story, ‘The Son’s Veto’ I have chosen to study the character Sophy. Sophy plays a working class woman, cleaning for a man called Mr Twycottt. Her character shows great charisma that enjoys the company of other people. Hardy describes her as a ‘young invalid lady’, ‘sitting in a wheeled chair’. He informs the reader about her hair, ‘…the long locks, braided and twisted…’ taken from page 34. Also he says, ‘She met the eyes of several of her observes by lifting her own, showing these to be soft brown…’ Sophy is described as an, ‘interesting women’.
Sophy is mother to a boy aged twelve or thirteen called Randolph. He attends a public school and is training to be a priest. She finds it important to devote her time to keep her son happy and respect his wishes. He is introduced to the story very near the beginning, which shows his significance and importance to the tale. Sophy also regrets to harm people by disappointing them and therefore sacrifices her own needs for other people. From reading the first page of the story it is clear that Sophy is keen to raise money for those less fortunate than herself. This is shown when she attends a charity event. As the event ends she waits till everyone has left before she, herself leaves. This is interpreted from ‘… should be clear enough for her to be wheeled out without obstruction.’ This shows that she is a patient woman, and again is another example where she puts others before herself.
During the time Hardy wrote this story, the 19th Century there was a rigid class structure defined by particular possessions, wealth, upbringing, breeding and education. At the beginning of the story, Sophy’s character plays a cleaner of lower class. Whilst cleaning for Mr Twycott Sophy had an accident by which, under intense circumstances left her unable to walk again. Consequently she was tied by a wheelchair. After her accident Mr Twycott, still wanted to be friends with Sophy, and he asked her to marry him. He appeared to be greatly moved by what she had suffered on his behalf. Sophy said yes, though she does not love him she respects him and realised she needed somewhere to live.
Sophy accepts his offer even though she doesn’t love him. On page 39 Hardy writes, ‘Sophy did not exactly love him, but she had respect for him which almost amounted to veneration,’ he goes on to say, ‘ she hardly dared to refuse’. This is perhaps the character we first associated Sophy with; the person that would prefer to put herself at risk than to hurt others. She was of lower class about to marry a man of much prosperity and wealth she would have been subjected to public ridicule gossip and mockery. The marriage is of some connivance to both sides. To Mr Twycott it provides the companionship he was missing and to Sophy it provides a home and a good lifestyle with someone she truly cares for.
Sophy’s relationship with Mr Twycott is one of trust and admiration, understanding and friendship. However Mr Twycott’s marriage proposal did not come about by the act true love. After his wife died, he experienced a loss as if something was missing in his life. He had no children and lived on his own. When he got ill, Sophy began to bring his food up to him. This was how she had her accident, which left her unable to walk. They had talked previously about Sam, a lover of Sophy’s. She explained he had asked her to marry him, she confided in him and told him that she didn’t really want to marry, but it would be a home for herself. She later announced to Mr Twycott that they had quarrelled and she wanted to carry on working for him. He accepted and let another member of staff go. This could be a sign that he felt something her then, but at the time did not want to make his feelings apparent. However after Sophy’s accident he made it clear that he did not want her to leave. He may of felt that a marriage proposal was the only way of her staying, his apprehension of being on his own with no companionship saddened him. On the other hand perhaps he felt guilty because of the accident and knowing she needed somewhere to live he thought it only appropreiate to propose. Maybe he knew that she would not refuse him.
Sophy’s relationship with Sam Hobson is hardly exposed in the story. There is a brief scene of them together at the beginning of the story. His character plays a young gardener, working and living in the same village as Sophy. He possesses an arrogant disposition, in that he assumes that Sophy will marry him before she had even admitted she liked him. Mid page 37 reads, ‘ … I’ve never even said I liked ‘ee…’ However much Mr Hobson may be into Sophy, she never makes it apparent she is interested in him this can be observed from the quote before. She is not rude towards him it is clear she feels comfortable talking to him. He is of the same working-class as her and this gives them a strong link.
Randolph Sophy’s son tends to over power her and she sacrifices her own happiness to respect his wishes. This generates a weaker version of Sophy’s personality.
Within the story Sophy plays two different roles. When she is in the company of Mr Twycott and people of his class she possesses a week, feeble personality. Once she was married to Mr Twycott she was re-educated. Presumably this was enforced by her husband, to avoid her disgracing herself and him whilst, in discussion with acquaintances. However when in company of strangers and people within the same class as she was originally from Sophy plays an incredibly strong character, perhaps stronger than the males that appear within the story. It is obvious that she feels at ease to converse with Sam Hobson as on page 37 she talks in a playful manner as if she is flirting with him. This type of behaviour is hardly existent between the relationship of Sophy and Mr Twycott. Depending on who Sophy is with usually shows if she is in control of the particular situation.
After Sophy and Mr Twycott had married they moved away from the small village by which they lived to the city. This was to avoid people knowing how the couple’s marriage came about. But also to be rid of the closer network of people with the different views, opinions and values that may have given them some grief. Other women in the community view Sophy as a desperate, money seeking, manipulative lady who associates with people for what they have to offer her. They view her as an outcast as she has not lived up to what is expected by society; she had tried to change the class she was originally born into by marring the local Vicar and becoming a lady of leisure.
I have chosen to explore the character Milly Richards from Thomas Hardy’s story, ‘Tony Kytes, the Arch-Deceiver’. Milly plays a character with little independence and self-confidence. I chose Milly because she possesses a different way of approaching situations compared to the other two characters I have previously picked in the stories before. There is little description of Milly and the only quote that describes her psychical appearance is, ‘Milly Richards, a nice, light, small tender little thing.’
Throughout the story it is clear Milly has little independence. She likes to be told what to do, and obeys Tony. This illustrates her relationship with him it is clear that Milly lacks confidence in self and needs someone to be there for her. Milly has a very naive perception of other people and believes everyone to be as pleasant as her. It is important to her to have someone to tell her what to do and this may be the reason why she accepted Tony’s proposal despite he had asked Unity and Hannah previously.
Milly is a very much weak character within this story. Not only does she lack self-respect, she lacks in confidence and strength in emotional situations. It is clear from the viewpoint of the reader that Tony does not love her, from the end of page 51 till the end of page 52 Tony is clearly flirting with Unity, ‘In fact, I never knowed you so pretty before!’ If Tony truly loved Milly and was as devoted as she hopes him to be, he wouldn’t even look at another female and even if he did he wouldn’t admit to it. To make it even worse Tony begins to flirt with Hannah in front of Milly. The beginning of page 55 reads, ‘ so they sat a little closer and closer, their feet upon the foot-board and their shoulders touching,’ Unable to talk as Milly is in the back of the carriage they show their feelings by body language.
Milly is viewed by other women in the story as normal. She lives up to what is expected by society for women during that time. She has no independence of her own and lacks in self-respect. However people may think she is a little stupid for accepting Tony’s marriage proposal. Milly is perhaps different to other female characters in the story because she does not stand up for herself.
The narrative viewpoint differs from each story. ‘The Son’s Veto’ and ‘The Withered Arm’ are written by using an omniscient narrator, which is a use of narrator that is not a character within the story. Whereas, ‘Tony Kytes the Arch Deceiver’ uses first person narrative. 1st person narrative is when the story is told by one of the characters point of view. This may seem more friendly and authentic because of the use of the local regional dialect. However by using one character to explain the story we can only experience and explore their feelings and point of view, which gives a biased and perhaps fiction analysis over situations. The omniscient style of narrative sees everything, which gives an unbiased view of what is happening in the story they are more truthful and factual then the use of a 1st person narrative.
Depending on the different personalities of the readers’ influences the way they read and interpret different styles of writing. To some people omniscient narrative encourages them to sympathise towards particular characters, as they are aware of everything that is happening and all the different feelings from the characters are expressed, generated and articulated. However other readers may feel that because all the feelings of all the characters are expressed they are basic and therefore find it difficult sympathise and relate to any of the characters.
1st person narrative only gives the viewpoint from one character, this may encourage the reader to sympathise with the character telling the story as it persuades them that they are involved in the story, as the character is talking directly to them. However certain people may find it hard to sympathise with this style of writing as it may promote the curiosity of how other characters are feeling and as a consequence may cause the reader to reject the character telling the story. This can be related to the story, ‘Tony Kytes the Arch Deceiver’ as the story ends we begin to feel a great amount of anxiety towards Tony because of the way he treats Milly. We do not sympathise with Tony.
Whilst comparing and contrasting these stories I have noticed similarities and differences between them. Each character has strong and weak points about their personality. Rhoda is weak because she doesn’t want to get hurt, Sophy is weak because she moved away from her village to avoid public mockery and Milly is weak for accepting Tony’s marriage proposal knowing that she wasn’t his first choice. However Rhoda is strong because she does not care what people think about her, she tends to rise above gossip also she is a single mother and has raised her child on her own. Sophy is strong because she has carried on living her life despite what happened to her after her accident. Milly is also strong because she has shown that despite how Tony has treated her she has stood up and shown she loves him by saying she will marry him.
Rhoda and Sophy have learnt to put other people before themselves because each of them have children this may encourage them to be less selfish and learn to accept they cannot have everything in life. These two characters are different to the image and role of women during Hardy’s time.
All the women have experienced failed relationships by the lack of commitment. Each of the women has become second best and has not experienced true love because of this. Sophy made sacrifices for her son, Rhoda has become second best to Gertrude and Milly was third best to Unity and Hannah. All the characters are perhaps viewed negatively by the local community.
The character I respect the most is Rhoda because of her out going personality and the fact does not care what people think of her.
In this essay I have investigated three main characters from the stories, ‘ The Withered Arm’, ‘Tony Kytes the Arch Deceiver’ and ‘The Son’s Veto’. From this I have been able to identify any differences and similarities between the characters. The different female roles Hardy has explored through these short stories are realistic and believable, fore the particular time he has chosen to set them in. He has written about different situations and chosen carefully the types of personalities his characters will have.
Today the roles of women has changed dramatically, after the world wars it became expected for women to work and lead they’re own lives. They gained more independence and became more confident. However life can still prove challenging for women, as different factors effect their lives in different ways. Overall life for women has changed a great deal since these three stories were written, though it is for the better.
